After this harangue he dismissed them, with orders to get themselves in readiness in every respect for marching the next day; when, setting out, he arrived at the river Iberus in ten days. Then crossing the river, he, on the fourth day, pitched his camp within sight of the enemy. Before him was a plain enclosed on all sides by mountains. Into the valley thus formed Scipio ordered some cattle, taken chiefly from the lands of the enemy, to be driven, in order to excite the rapacity of the barbarians, and then sent some light-armed troops as a protection for them, directing Laelius to charge the enemy from a place of concealment when they were engaged in skirmishing. A mountain which projected conveniently concealed the ambuscade of the cavalry, and the battle began without delay. The Spaniards, as soon as they saw the cattle at a distance, rushed upon them, and the light-armed troops attacked the Spaniards while occupied with their booty. At first they annoyed each other with missiles; but afterwards, having discharged their light weapons, which were calculated to provoke rather than to decide the contest, they drew their swords, and began to engage foot to foot. The fight between the infantry would have been doubtful, but that the cavalry then came up, and not only, charging them in front, trod down all before them, but some also, riding round by the foot of the hill, presented themselves on their rear, so that they might intercept the greater part of them; and consequently the carnage was greater than usually takes place in light and skirmishing engagements. The resentment of the barbarians was rather inflamed by this adverse battle, than their spirits depressed. Accordingly, that they might not appear cast down, they marched out into the field the following day as soon as it was light. The valley, which was confined, as has been before stated, would not contain all their forces. About two-thirds of their foot and all their cavalry came down to the engagement. The remainder of their infantry they stationed on the declivity of the hill. Scipio, conceiving that the confined nature of the ground would be in his favour, both because the Roman troops were better adapted for fighting in a contracted space than the Spanish, and also because the enemy had come down and formed their line on ground which would not contain all their forces, applied his mind to a new expedient. For he considered that he could not himself cover his flanks with his cavalry, and that those of the enemy which they had led out, together with their infantry, would be unable to act. Accordingly he ordered Laelius to lead the cavalry round by the hills as secretly as possible, and separate, as far as he could, the fight between the cavalry from that between the infantry. He himself drew up the whole body of his infantry against the enemy, placing four cohorts in front, because he could not extend his line further. He commenced the battle without delay, in order that the contest itself might divert the attention of the enemy, and prevent their observing the cavalry which were passing along the hills. Nor were they aware that they had come round before they beard the noise occasioned by the engagement of the cavalry in their rear. Thus there were two battles; two lines of infantry and two bodies of horse being engaged within the space occupied by the plain lengthwise; and that because it was too narrow to admit of both descriptions of force being engaged in the same lines. When the Spanish infantry could not assist their cavalry, nor their cavalry the infantry, and the infantry, which had rashly engaged in the plain, relying on the assistance of the cavalry, were being cut to pieces, the cavalry themselves also, being surrounded and unable to stand the shock of the enemy's infantry in front, (for by this time their own infantry were completely overthrown,) nor of the cavalry in their rear, after having formed themselves into a circle and defended themselves for a long time, their horses standing still, were all slain to a man. Nor did one person, horse or foot, survive of those who were engaged in the valley. The third part, which stood upon the hill rather to view the contest in security than to take any part of it upon themselves, had both time and space to fly; among whom the princes themselves also fled, having escaped during the confusion, before the army was entirely surrounded.
34
The same day, besides other booty, the camp of the Spaniards was taken, together with about three thousand men. Of the Romans and their allies as many as one thousand two hundred fell in that battle; more than three thousand were wounded. The victory would have been less bloody had the battle taken place in a plain more extended, and affording facilities for flight. Indibilis, renouncing his purpose of carrying on war, and considering that his safest reliance in his present distress was on the tried honour and clemency of Scipio, sent his brother Mandonius to him; who, falling prostrate before his knees, ascribed his conduct to the fatal frenzy of those times, when, as it were from the effects of some pestilential contagion, not only the Ilergetians and Lacetanians, but even the Roman camp had been infected with madness. He said that his own condition, and that of his brother and the rest of his countrymen, was such, that either, if it seemed good, they would give back their lives to him from whom they had received them, or if preserved a second time, they would in return for that favour devote their lives for ever to the service of him to whom alone they were indebted for them. They before placed their reliance on their cause, when they had not yet had experience of his clemency, but now, on the contrary, placing no reliance on their cause, all their hopes were centred in the mercy of the conqueror. It was a custom with the Romans, observed from ancient times, not to exercise any authority over others, as subject to them, in cases where they did not enter into friendship with them by a league and on equal terms, until they had surrendered all they possessed, sacred and profane; until they had received hostages, taken their arms from them, and placed garrisons in their cities. In the present instance, however, Scipio, after inveighing at great length against Mandonius, who stood before him, and Indibilis, who was absent, said "that they had justly forfeited their lives by their wicked conduct, but that they should be preserved by the kindness of himself and the Roman people. Further, that he would neither take their arms from them, (which only served as pledges to those who feared rebellion,) but would leave them the free use of them, and their minds free from fear; nor would he take vengeance on their unoffending hostages, but upon themselves, should they revolt, not inflicting punishment upon a defenceless but an armed enemy. That he gave them the liberty of choosing whether they would have the Romans favourable to them or incensed against them, for they had experienced them under both circumstances." Thus Mandonius was allowed to depart, having only a pecuniary fine imposed upon him to furnish the means of paying the troops. Scipio himself, having sent Marcius in advance into the Farther Spain, and sent Silanus back to Tarraco, waited a few days until the Ilergetians had paid the fine imposed upon them; and then, setting out with some troops lightly equipped, overtook Marcius when he was now drawing near to the ocean.
35
The negotiation which had some time before commenced respecting Masinissa, was delayed from one cause after another; for the Numidian was desirous by all means of conferring with Scipio in person, and of touching his right hand in confirmation of their compact. This was the cause of Scipio's undertaking at this time a journey of such a length, and into so remote a quarter. Masinissa, when at Gades, received information from Marcius of the approach of Scipio, and by pretending that his horses were injured by being pent up in the island, and that they not only caused a scarcity of every thing to the rest, but also felt it themselves; moreover that his cavalry were beginning to lose their energy for want of employment; he prevailed upon Mago to allow him to cross over to the continent, to plunder the adjacent country of Spain. Having passed over, he sent forward three chiefs of the Numidians, to fix a time and place for the conference desiring that two might be detained by Scipio as hostages. The third being sent back to conduct Masinissa to the place to which he was directed to bring him, they came to the conference with a few attendants. The Numidian had long before been possessed with admiration of Scipio from the fame of his exploits; and his imagination had pictured to him the idea of a grand and magnificent person; but his veneration for him was still greater when he appeared before him. For besides that his person, naturally majestic in the highest degree, was rendered still more so by his flowing hair, by his dress, which was not in a precise and ornamental style, but truly masculine and soldier-like, and also by his age, for he was then in full vigour of body, to which the bloom of youth, renewed as it were after his late illness, had given additional fulness and sleekness. The Numidian, who was in a manner thunderstruck by the mere effect of the meeting, thanked him for having sent home his brother's son. He affirmed, that from that time he had sought for this opportunity, which being at length presented to him, by favour of the immortal gods, he had not allowed to pass without seizing it. That he desired to serve him and the Roman people in such a manner, as that no one foreigner should have aided the Roman interest with greater zeal than himself. Although he had long since wished it, he had not been so able to effect it in Spain, a foreign and strange country; but that it would be easy for him to do so in that country in which he had been born and educated, under the hope of succeeding to his father's throne. If, indeed, the Romans should send the same commander, Scipio, into Africa, he entertained a well-grounded hope that Carthage would continue to exist but a short time. Scipio saw and heard him with the highest delight, both because he knew that he was the first man in all the cavalry of the enemy, and because the youth himself exhibited in his manner the strongest proof of a noble spirit. After mutual pledges of faith, he set out on his return to Tarraco. Masinissa, having laid waste the adjacent lands, with the permission of the Romans, that he might not appear to have passed over into the continent to no purpose, returned to Gades.
36
Mago, who despaired of success in Spain, of which he had entertained hopes, from the confidence inspired first by the mutiny of the soldiers, and afterwards by the defection of Indibilis, received a message from Carthage, while preparing to cross over into Africa, that the senate ordered him to carry over into Italy the fleet he had at Gades; and hiring there as many as he could of the Gallic and Ligurian youth, to form a junction with Hannibal, and not to suffer the war to flag which had been begun with so much vigour and still more success. For this object Mago not only received a supply of money from Carthage, but himself also exacted as much as he could from the inhabitants of Gades, plundering not only their treasury, but their temples, and compelling them individually to bring contributions of gold and silver, for the public service. As he sailed along the coast of Spain, he landed his troops not far from New Carthage, and after wasting the neighbouring lands, brought his fleet thence to the city. Here, keeping his troops in the ships by day, he landed them by night, and marched them to that part of the wall at which Carthage had been captured by the Romans; for he had supposed both that the garrison by which the city was occupied was not sufficiently strong for its protection, and that some of the townsmen would act on the hope of effecting a change. But messengers who came with the utmost haste and alarm from the country, brought intelligence at once of the devastation of the lands, the flight of the rustics, and the approach of the enemy. Besides, the fleet had been observed during the day, and it was evident that there was some object in choosing a station before the city. Accordingly, the troops were kept drawn up and armed within the gate which looks towards the lake and the sea. When the enemy, rushing forward in a disorderly manner, with a crowd of seamen mingled with soldiers, came up to the walls with more noise than strength; the gate being suddenly thrown open, the Romans sallied forth with a shout, and pursued the enemy, routed and put to flight at the first onset and discharge of their weapons, all the way to the shore, killing a great number of them; nor would one of them have survived the battle and the flight, had not the ships, which had been brought to the shore, afforded them a refuge in their dismay. Great alarm and confusion also prevailed in the ships, occasioned by their drawing up the ladders, lest the enemy should force their way in together with their own men, and by cutting away their halsers and anchors that they might not lose time in weighing them. Many, too, met with a miserable death while endeavouring to swim to the ships, not knowing, in consequence of the darkness, which way to direct their course, or what to avoid. On the following day, after the fleet had fled back to the ocean whence it had come, as many as eight hundred were slain between the wall and the shore, and two thousand stand of arms were found.